Bristle worm spitting out white stuff ??

markgsiy · 07-07-2006, 07:11 PM

Hi Everyone,
I have a very strange thing happen in my tank today. A bristle worm - or at least it looked like it - came out of a crevace of a rock and sprayed out some white stuff 2-3 times into the water. It clouded the tank for about 15-20mins but all is fine now. Does anyone know what is going on ? The worm looked to be quite big - I would say about 3 inches long and about 1/4" thick.
This also happened at least once before that I noticed my tank was all cloudy, although I did not know where it came from at that time.
Does anyone know if this is normal ? Anyone else have this problem ? Should I try to catch the worm ? Is it sick ? Anyone have any ideas ???
Thanks !!

coral reefer · 07-07-2006, 08:29 PM

Are you sure it is a worm? Do you have a picture? It could be a nudibranch or a cucumber. Possibly releasing gametes into the water or deficating.

markgsiy · 07-07-2006, 09:48 PM

To tell you the truth, I am not sure what happened, however, I am sure that it some sort of worm. I thought it looked like a large bristle worm - I am used to seeing the small ones around, but this was large. Much larger than 1 inch long. It looked to be about 3in. When it spit out the white stuff (still don't know what it was) it seemed to come out of its mouth or nostril - it was definitely 2 streams of white stuff that it sent out into the water. It did it 2-3 times and made the water cloudy. It cleared out in about 10 min as I have a pretty good water filter, but it looked really wierd. Just hoping someone would be able to let me know if this is normal or not.

rickzter · 07-08-2006, 02:04 AM

Did it look stringy? Mucusy? Eggs? If it looked like tiny eggs, could have been a cucumber. I'm pretty sure he was crapping, whatever it was.

I too, sometimes have my water cloudy when the lights are off. Someone trying to spawn, haha.

amcarrig · 07-08-2006, 10:27 AM

Most likely worm spawn

Just run some carbon if you aren't already.

markgsiy · 07-08-2006, 04:33 PM

Yea.. have been running carbon and it clears out the tank in about 10 min or less. It is just a bit wierd when the whole tank becomes cloudy with this white stuff.
Thanks a lot.
MS

rickzter · 07-08-2006, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markgsiy

Yea.. have been running carbon and it clears out the tank in about 10 min or less. It is just a bit wierd when the whole tank becomes cloudy with this white stuff.
Thanks a lot.
MS

You should of seen my tank when I introduced a pink cucumber in my reef some months back. He immediately spawned right after putting him in the tank (after acclimating of course). Well, he clouded my water and it didn't clear for a couple of days. Oh yea, he also killed my fish as the eggs are extremely toxic to fish.

markgsiy · 07-09-2006, 02:44 PM

Ok.. it seems like this is a spawing thing for bristleworms.. Next question is, How often does this happen ? Once a week, month ???
Also, my 2 perculas keep mating with eggs every month or so. Do you know if this white stuff is good for the eggs or not ? Mind you, I have only seen the eggs on the rock then in a week or so, the eggs are all gone... and no baby fish anywhere ??? Can this white stuff be killing or affecting the baby frys ? or am I just SOL ??? or am I waayyy offf ?!?
MS

amcarrig · 07-09-2006, 03:24 PM

Frequency of bristleworm spawning if usually determined by the population of worms of worms in the tank so it's hard to say. I highly doubt that the spawn is affecting the fish fry though. Most likely, the eggs are hatching when the lights are out and being eaten by your fish and inverts.

karlas · 07-11-2006, 07:35 AM

I'm not sure on the worm issue but as far as the clown eggs babies might be getting eaten. Or I see on your list you have peppermint shrimp and crabs they might be munching on the eggs at night time. All shimp and crab are opportunistic feeders and will much on anything especially if its easy to get to or grab.